On April 17, 2012, the Peterson Institute hosted the release of The Occupy Handbook, a compendium of articles by leading economists and others on the causes and implications of the recent Occupy movements around the country. A number of the book's contributors—including Carmen M. Reinhart, Peterson Institute; Robin Wells; James A. Robinson, Harvard University (coauthor of Why Nations Fail); and John Cassidy, the New Yorker—summarized their commentaries in the volume and took audience questions.

The book examines the causes and long-term effects of the protest movement with essays by 68 different economic, business, and cultural writers. Two of the book's primary themes are income inequality, the subject of a leadoff essay by Paul Krugman and guest editor Robin Wells, and the influence of money and lobbying in politics addressed by Paul Volcker and Matt Taibbi. The book comprises three sections: "how we got here," "where we are now," and "solutions" offering more than 20 proposals for change.